Eggplant and Thick Deep-Fried Tofu Stew (なすびと厚揚げの煮物) Nasubi to Atsuage no Nimono

Eggplant Nimono

Autumn is also a good season for good eggplants in Fukuoka.  I was inspired to cook this meal tonight after biking back home from the office in the dark, accompanied by the cool night breeze.  Actually, I got the idea from my mother, because I stopped by my parents place before heading home and saw her cooking this dish.  I thought it would be great to feed this to Kaeru as well.    I asked her if she was going to post it in her blog, and she said “What on earth is a blog?”, so I figured its mine for the taking.  I jotted down the ingredients and ran home to my hungry husband.   I hope you enjoy this recipe passed on from my grandmother and to my mother, and now to me!

Ingredients (serves 2-3)

• 200-250 g of Eggplant
• 150-200g of Thick Deep-Fried Tofu (Atsuage)
• 6 Small Green Pepper (Shishitou)*Optional  ** Sweet green pepper is used in the photos!
• 1 1/2 big spoons  of Soy Sauce
• 2 big spoons  of  Sake (rice wine) for cooking
• 1 big spoon of Mirin
• 2 small spoons of Sugar
• 1/2 spoon of Dashi powder
• 1 small spoon of sesame oil
• Big spoon(Oosaji) =15ml, Small Spoon (Kosaji)=5ml

Cooking

1. Peel lengthwise portions of eggplants (as seen in photo) and slice into 1.5-2cm size.

2. Slice the thick deep-fried tocfu into 1.5-2 cm size. Remove stem end of small green peppers

3. Heat sesame oil in the pot and add eggplant. Cook for 2-3 min.

4. Add 150ml of water, soy sauce, mirin, sake, sugar and dashi powder. Cook for 3 min.

5. Add thick deep-fried tofu and sweet green pepper. Cover the pot and cook for 7-10 min or until eggplants become soft.  Make sure you do not mix the three ingredients.  However, make sure to mix the ingredients among themselves, making sure that those not submerged are submerged in turn. For better results, *You can use an Otoshi-buta, a lid that can be placed deep inside of the pot.  It will be useful to make sure all the ingredients are soaked in the soup!

6. Serve Hot!

Itadakimasu!